As change agents and leaders in their respective practice, nurses use their clinical and research skills to implement solutions for different practice issues. However, the successful implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP) projects is contingent on organizational culture and readiness for change. The culture is primarily about shared beliefs and values, while readiness for change involves organizational members’ psychological and behavioral preparedness for the proposed solution (Crittendon et al., 2020; D’Silva et al., 2024). Assessing the culture and readiness predicts whether the proposed change will succeed. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the culture and level of readiness of the current organization for which the EBP project is proposed.
A close analysis of the organization’s leadership, core values, and interprofessional relationships depicts a clan culture. Dominant aspects of a clan culture include teamwork, cohesion, employee engagement, and collaboration (D’Silva et al., 2024). This culture supports change maximally due to its persistence for excellence, which is achieved by improving present practices and embracing innovation. Although the leadership is centralized, leaders are close to employees and conduct performance appraisals regularly as the basis for employee growth and development. The organization’s mission is to deliver high-quality patient care in an environment that values professionalism, integrity, compassion, and therapeutic patient-provider relationships. Open communication is highly encouraged to sustain interprofessional collaboration and team cohesion. The close relationship between leaders and employees makes employees perceive the organization positively.
The Organizational Readiness for Knowledge Translation (OR4KT) tool was used to assess the level of readiness within the present organization. This questionnaire has fifty-nine items that assess organizational readiness from six dimensions: climate, support, contextual factors, change content, leadership, and motivation (Llarena et al., 2023). Evaluating readiness using the OR4KT tool is established on the principle that leaders should support the change, employees should be motivated to have it, and there should be a willingness to innovate and experiment with new ways to improve clinical procedures. Summarizing the scores in the OR4KT tool gives a maximum of 295 points, which is converted into a percentage (0-100) scale to ease interpretation (Llarena et al., 2023). The organization scored 278/295 (94%), demonstrating high readiness for change (Appendix A).
Healthcare organizations should strive to enhance readiness to ensure innovation is readily accepted and supported. Fostering a culture of inquiry is an effective strategy to better facilitate organizational readiness. According to Bridges et al. (2024), a culture of inquiry is centered on continuous improvements, a critical component of exemplary practice. This culture also encourages healthcare staff to continually engage in evidence-based practice. The other strategy is readiness assessment as an annual practice. Using OR4KT and other appropriate tools, leaders should evaluate the readiness level and address areas of underperformance to ensure EBP implementation encounters minimal or zero barriers to implementation.
The clan culture will readily support and sustain the proposed EBP change. These predicted outcomes are possible in a clan culture since it focuses on excellence, teamwork, and empowerment to ensure effective patient care (D’Silva et al., 2024). Despite these strengths, decision-making may take longer since multiple views are considered and evaluated. Potential barriers include the unavailability of healthcare professionals due to the demanding nature of their tasks and the inability of some patients to fully participate in some activities of the proposed program, particularly mindful walking. Stakeholder support is predicted to be high and present despite the working schedules. The timing is excellent due to the need to reduce psychological distress among cancer patients. Resources are also available to fully implement the project.
Multiple processes and systems can be used jointly to improve quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness for the organization. They include the
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